As luxury goes digital, 'diffusion' brands become obsolete (2024)
The diffusion brand, as it has existed for the past few decades, feels ancient in the modern fashion industry.
In fashion, the term “diffusion brand” meansa secondary line by a well-known designer. (Think Marc by Marc Jacobs, CK by Calvin Klein.) They are intended toreach a younger, aspirational demographic with lower price points and edgier items — all while generating extra revenue.
Diffusion brands had their heyday inthe 1990s and early 2000s, but since then, the industry has changed. Today’s consumersare shopping and researching acrossbrick-and-mortar, online and mobile channels, and legacy fashion houses have been slow to realigntheir resources accordingly.
“Omnichannel is taking up a lot of focus for these brands that aren’t digitally native, and that’s a lot of time, energy and organizational change,” said Ruth Bernstein, founder of creative agency Yard. “With diffusion lines, you’re splitting your attention to two different brands that have twodifferent voices. Then you must maintain bothconversations across channels. It’s hard.”
A quick look at some of the designers that have discontinued their diffusion brands demonstrates that the model has lost its luster. Marc by Marc Jacobs was absorbed back into the main Marc Jacobs line in 2015. D&G by Dolce & Gabbana dissipated in 2011. Prada’s Miu Miu was repositioned into a sisterbrand. DKNY is still hanging on, but things aren’t looking good: NamesakeDonna Karan recently stepped down as the brand’screative director, andAliza Licht, the brand’s popular social media persona @DKNYPRGirl, has departed.
It’s not just that retailers are facing a sink-or-swim situation amongnew channels. New trends like fast fashion (H&M, Zara) and affordable luxury (Tory Burch, Michael Kors) have eaten up diffusion brands’ stake in the market.
“In the 1990s, diffusion brands had much less competition than they do today,” said Rony Zeidan, founder of branding agency Ro New York, who also serves as a contributorat the publication Luxury Society. “There’s no sexiness or luxuriousness around them anymore; the market is too diversified, and shoppers have too many options.”
Legacy luxury brands have begun warming up to e-commerce — Burberry stands out as a luxe-to-online success story — but overall progress is slow moving.
Design houses like Chanel, Fred Segal and Tom Ford announced onlythis year that they would begin selling online. Others, like Céline, haven’t budged, still selling product strictly in stores. According to fashion-business analysis firm Fashionbi, online sales currently account for 5 percent of the luxury goods industry. This is behind that of the overall global industry, whereonline sales are projected to account for 6.7 percent of all retail this year.
“When you’ve got physical retail and e-commerce, all the pieces must work together,” said Bernstein. “Ifa secondary diffusionline doesn’t make sense, it starts to fall apart.”
The Internet has driven that point. Now, fashion shows are streamed runway-side on Periscope, emerging indie brands like Revolve can blast into the mainstream retail industry, and the designers themselves, like Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs, can share behind-the-scenes peeks into collections (and their personal lives) on Snapchat and Instagram. The Web has shed a clearer light on the fashion industry, previously nontransparent to outsiders, and as a result, the previous unattainability of high-end designers is lessened, along with the need for a diffusion brand.
“The visibility of fashion and runway shows online has changed fashion in a way we haven’t seen before,” said Zeidan. “Everyone is seeing runway shows online six months before the product is in-store, and the aspect of being in touch with the fashion world online has subconsciously caused a rift between what consumers want and what they’re offered.”
Enter brands like Asos, Zara and H&M that createrunway imitations for a fraction of the cost, and quickly. H&M has also been home to quick-to-sell-out collections in collaboration with designers like Alexander Wang. In comparison, the diffusion brand is slow to react to trends that its own head designer is creating.
“E-commerce has sped up the fashion industry,” said Ashley Painstil, editorial director at FashInvest, a business platform and research firm for growing fashion, retail and consumer companies. “From production to reaching the audience, one streamlined approach from the brand is important. Not to mention brand identity is important, and diffusions were watering those down.”
DKNY, for its part, has made a smart move in its bid for survival: In Donna Karan’s wake, Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne were broughtinas the new creative directors. Previously, the pair created trendy, millennial-favorite label Public School — the exact type of brand that’s threatening diffusion brands’ relevance.
“Diffusion lines were a good idea for their time,” said Paintsil. “But social media and e-commerce took over millennial shopping habits. A luxury brand has to recruit talent that knows those habits to keep it alive online.”
Imageof theDKNY Spring 2014 show via Fashionstock.com/Shutterstock
The use of a diffusion line is a part of the strategy of massification where luxury brands attempt to reach a broader market in order to increase revenue and brand recognition.
Diffusion branding occurs when a company creates a second product line which appeals to a different target market than the target market of the parent company. By launching a diffusion brand, a parent luxury brand enters an entirely new market of luxury, also referred to as affordable luxury.
The pioneering line launched by Giorgio Armani in 1981, Emporio Armani is aimed at a young crowd and is the only diffusion line that is mainly designed by Giorgio Armani himself.
Perfume is sprayed in one part of a room, yet soon it diffuses so that you can smell it everywhere. A drop of food coloring diffuses throughout the water in a glass so that, eventually, the entire glass will be colored.
ZARA TRF, Marc by Marc Jacobs, CK of Calvin Klein, or H&M Divided are called diffusion line. Diffusion line is a secondary line of goods, usually created by a high-end fashion house or fashion designer that retails at lower prices to cater wider market that can afford the item.
What is a Knockoff in Fashion? Knockoff clothing is a very exact replica of designer fashion clothing that is sold for less than the original. There is a difference between buying knockoff designer clothing and purchasing fake designer clothing. Authentic brand labels won't be found on counterfeit apparel.
Awareness, persuasion, decision, implementation, and continuation. These are the five stages of adoption according to diffusion of innovation theory. Awareness: A person becomes aware of the innovation.
In marketing, diffusion models have been used traditionally for capturing the life- cycle dynamics of a new product, for forecasting the demand for a new product, and as a decision aid in making pre-launch, launch and post-launch strategic choices.
These are the four main brand components that you will need to address when developing your brand strategy. A strong brand requires a strong brand identity, brand image, brand culture, and brand personality.
Prada's collections, which grew in the early nineties to include menswear and a diffusion line, Miu Miu, are marked by clean lines and modern streamlined silhouettes.
So to recap, the main differences between the two brands are that Emporio Armani holds a higher price tag to Armani Exchange. It holds more formal and sought after items created by Giorgio Armani himself, whereas A|X holds pieces more suited to everyday casual wear.
First introduced in 1999 and lasting just under a decade until 2008, Miu Miu's menswear line was created as a diffusion line for Prada, a counterpart to the already long-running women's line that over the years took on an increasingly distinct and precise identity.
A tea bag immersed in a cup of hot water will diffuse into the water and change its colour. A spray of perfume or room freshener will get diffused into the air by which we can sense the odour. Sugar gets dissolved evenly and sweetens the water without having to stir it.
Diffusion of substances plays an important role in cellular transport in plants. The rate of diffusion is affected by the concentration gradient, membrane permeability, temperature, and pressure. Diffusion takes place as long as there is a difference between the concentrations of a substance across a barrier.
There are certain product and service characteristics that affect the diffusion process and can influence consumer acceptance of new products and services; the five factors that can impact the diffusion process and the rate of adoption are relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trial-ability, and observability.
Examples of cultural diffusion today include K-Pop, Bollywood movies, Hollywood movies, ideas, memes, and just about anything else that can be spread via the Internet and social media.
Some example applications of diffusion: Sintering to produce solid materials (powder metallurgy, production of ceramics)Chemical reactor design. Catalyst design in chemical industry.
Diffusion is important to cells because it allows them to gain the useful substances they require to obtain energy and grow, and lets them get rid of waste products.
The brand overall has had many different brands and diffusion lines since its launch in 1967, with Polo Ralph Lauren (often shortened to just Polo) being the most recognized. The brand's products are vast, spanning apparel, accessories, fragrance collections, as well as childrenswear and home furnishings.
Since perfume is either a gas or liquid thus, in both cases it can easily get mixed with the air particles. This mixing of perfume particles into the air and reaching the other corner of the room is through the process of diffusion. This is how diffusion works in the case of perfume.
Whenever you smell the lovely smell of fresh coffee or drop a tea bag into hot water you're benefiting from diffusion: the fact that particles moving at random under the influence of thermal energy spread themselves around.
But all of the deodorant particles don't remain under your arm, or nobody would be able to smell them. They slowly move by diffusion (we say they diffuse) from a high concentration under your arm to the lower concentration found in the air.
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